Government asked to subsidise inputs for winter-cropping

The National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Public Trust has asked government and its development partners to consider providing subsidised inputs to farmers whose crops were washed away by the floods.

But the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has indicated the government may be unable to fund the initiative in the current financial year.

Nice regional civic education officer (South), Enock Chinkhuntha, observed that although organisations have been providing flood victims with maize seeds to replant, the likelihood of a harvest is minimal.

“There are two reasons for our doubts. Firstly, we’re past the right time for planting, and, secondly, our rainfall patterns are very unreliable nowadays such that no one can predict when it will stop,” he said.

Chinkhuntha warned that the 15 districts that were declared ‘a disaster zone’ could face a serious shortage of food until the next harvesting season in 2016.

An agricultural officer in Phalombe, Innocent Kaponya, speaking last week when Mkango Resources Limited donated relief items to 470 households affected by floods in group village head (GVH) Maoni in Traditional Authority (T/A) Nazombe in Phalombe, also recommended that winter-cropping is the only option the district could explore to turnaround its food situation.